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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23375122">what do i do?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/sanctify'>sanctify (orphan_account)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>☆ strong in the real way - marinette week 2020 ☆ [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Background DJWifi, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Reveal Pre-Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Post-Reveal Pre-Relationship, mentions of vomiting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:41:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,571</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23375122</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/sanctify</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>you're better off not knowing the trouble i'm in</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Minor or Background Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>☆ strong in the real way - marinette week 2020 ☆ [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1677403</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>69</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>what do i do?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this took a while to write because i was in the zone and then my father put up the sonic movie again and i fly towards my hedgehog son like a moth to a flame so i basically watched a movie i've watched countless times to the point of memorisation for an hour and a half and when i came back to this, i wasn't in the zone anymore lmao</p><p>day 4: alya</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Girl, what the hell!”</p><p> </p><p>“Ack! Alya! What?!”</p><p> </p><p>“What is this?!” Alya asks, forcefully folding her sleeves up, to show the huge bruise that Marinette had been trying to hide all this time. She had been doing so well, but Alya has always been observant. Something had to have been obvious. Her body language? Maybe. She’s pretty sure she’s been preferring her left hand instead of her right. Darn.</p><p> </p><p>She locks eyes with Adrien in the front row, begging for an out, but his eyes shine with thinly-veiled panic. He doesn’t know what to say either. (That’s kind of her fault. If he had just gotten his usual-but-not-healthy-no-shut-up-Adrien-it’s-not-healthy five hours of sleep, his brain would have worked as well as it usually did.) She was on her own, whether she liked it or not. If Adrien tried to change the subject now, Alya would only get more suspicious. She might even jump to the (very wrong) conclusion that it was Adrien’s fault Marinette was injured. (Heck, it was only thanks to him that she escaped with just the bruise. She very well could have died from last night’s attack, something Adrien had very thoroughly scolded her about until the sun started creeping up on the horizon. He had practically yelled and cried himself hoarse, and she had never felt more guilty in her life.)</p><p> </p><p>“I might have hit something at home, I don’t know,” Marinette explained lamely. It was a lukewarm excuse, and she was pretty sure Alya wouldn’t buy it.</p><p> </p><p>“I call bullshit,” her best friend says. </p><p> </p><p>“Mlle. Césaire, language!” Mme. Bustier scolds, entering the classroom.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette and Adrien both breathe an unnoticeable sigh of relief.</p><p> </p><p>“This isn’t over, girl,” Alya hisses.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>The bell for morning récré rang, and the students of Mme. Bustier’s class all quickly packed their stuff and left the room, conversations ringing around the classroom until, finally, every last student left. That is, aside from Alya, Marinette, Nino, and Adrien.</p><p> </p><p>Alya had signaled early on to her boyfriend to wait until everyone left, and there was no way in hell Adrien was leaving Marinette to fend for herself against Alya Césaire on a mission.</p><p> </p><p>“Alright, girl,” Alya says, hands on her hips. “Everyone else is gone. It’s just us. What the hell is going on?” Her face was painted in a hard scowl. There was no way Marinette was going to lie her way out of this.</p><p> </p><p>She couldn’t say that she got hurt at the Akuma attack yesterday—even though that’s exactly what happened—because for one, the Akuma attack happened all the way over at the 7th arrondissement. She wouldn’t be able to explain what she was doing there at three in the morning when she had said goodnight to Alya on text at 10. And second of all, even if she did somehow find her way to the Akuma’s blast zone and get hurt in the process, the Miraculous Cure should have fixed any and all injuries. Except, the Miraculous Cure didn’t work on her. It never worked on her. (The day Chat Noir realised that, he’d thrown up and had gotten so badly upset that Ladybug had to carefully watch out for any evil butterflies. He’d gotten more protective of her ever since. </p><p> </p><p>And then even more once their identities were forcefully revealed to each other because they’d ran out of time. <em> “No offense, Marinette, but I’ve seen you trip over nothing outside the suit and get a bruise from that. Now you’re basically a homing beacon for all Akumas and this. Is. Not. Helping.” </em> Adrien had said, gesturing wildly after one of their more dangerous Akumas. She had felt bad for laughing at how harried he looked, especially when he looked really close to a heart attack after a little stunt she pulled. And she’d thought that the boy was stressed before, now she’s added to his list of stressors, probably even above his own father.)</p><p> </p><p>“Girl,” Alya’s voice, suddenly sounding so tired, broke her from her spiraling thoughts. “Please, don’t lie to me.”</p><p> </p><p>“W-what?”</p><p> </p><p>“I know your tells,” Alya says, “I know you’re looking for the perfect excuse to tell me. I’ve known for a while that you’ve been hiding something from me.”</p><p> </p><p>“I—”  </p><p> </p><p>To Marinette’s horror, Alya sniffles, “You suck at lying, Mari. You hate lying. So whatever’s happening to you is so important that you have to lie to me.” Alya clears her throat. “But I don’t want to be left in the dark anymore.” She wipes her eyes. “You’re hurt. And whatever hurt you is connected to whatever you’ve been hiding from me. I don’t know what would have caused that, and I know for a fact that your parents would rather keel over and die rather than ever lay a hurtful hand on you. So I thought… you must’ve gotten mixed up with somebody bad. Have you gotten yourself into an abusive relationship?! Tell me who it is, and I’ll kick their ass!”</p><p> </p><p>“Alya…”</p><p> </p><p>“Marinette, please,” Alya begs. “Don’t shut me out. I just want to help you.”</p><p> </p><p>She can feel herself begin to panic. She wants to lie and say she’s fine, that it really was an accident. But Alya’s right. She hates lying more than anything else in the world (except Papillon himself), and Alya already knows she’s hiding something. She doesn’t want to have to hide from Alya anymore… she doesn’t want to lose Alya’s friendship over this.</p><p> </p><p>But Alya’s the Ladyblogger. And it’s been her goal from the start to find out Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s identities.</p><p> </p><p>But… Alya’s also one of her best friends. And she knows Alya’s intentions are pure.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette can feel Tikki’s touch through her purse, a soft touch saying <em>‘I’m here for you, and I’ll respect whatever decision you choose.’</em></p><p> </p><p>She locks eyes with Adrien, who’s been silent this entire time. He gives her a soft smile and nods.</p><p> </p><p>Alright. She’s made up her mind.</p><p> </p><p>“Instead of telling you,” Marinette says, voice hoarse, “Maybe I’ll… just show you.”</p><p> </p><p>She opens her purse.</p><p> </p><p>“Tikki,” she calls out, taking a deep breath. “Transforme moi.”</p><p> </p><p>The familiar magic wraps around her, turning her from civilian Marinette Dupain-Cheng to superheroine Ladybug.</p><p> </p><p>Nino and Alya both gasp in shock.</p><p> </p><p>Ladybug smiles a small smile before it sinks. “Detransformation.” The magic fades away, and Tikki lands into her cupped hands.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sorry I hid this from you,” Marinette says, “I didn’t want to. But I needed to. You would have been targetted even more by Papillon if he somehow found out that you were important to me.” She bit her bottom lip, “I never want to see you hurt—”</p><p> </p><p>Alya surged forward and wrapped her arms around Marinette in a tight hug, “Oh my God,” she gasped into Marinette’s shoulder, and Marinette can feel the tears soaking her sleeve. “You… you almost died last night. Marinette, what the fuck.” Her grip was tight enough to hurt. All Marinette did was hug Alya as tight as she could. “You almost died…! If it weren’t for Chat Noir, you wouldn’t have—”</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”</p><p> </p><p>“Do you even know how close that Akuma was to hitting you on the head? The force of its fist could have cracked your spine—”</p><p> </p><p>“Alya,” Adrien started, panicked, “Alya, stop. Stop. Don’t.”</p><p> </p><p>Not giving any attention to Adrien’s pleas, Alya pushed away from her hug, hands reaching up and cupping Marinette’s cheeks. “Please stop being so careless, holy shit, Ladybug, Marinette, whatever you call yourself these days.”</p><p> </p><p>“I mean, both work… but my name works better outside the suit.”</p><p> </p><p>“Girl, I can’t even… I just. I need a moment.” She says, sitting down on the table she shared with Marinette, her head in her hands.</p><p> </p><p>Her head shoots up, looking at Marinette, “Does Chat Noir even know who you are?”</p><p> </p><p>“He—”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, I do.”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette and Alya both turn their heads toward Adrien. Alya’s face is filled with shock, Marinette’s with exasperation. Adrien shrugs and smirks Chat Noir’s smirk, but Marinette can tell that he’s still shaken from Alya’s earlier comment about the Akuma almost destroying her spine.</p><p> </p><p>“Duuuude, that’s awesome.” Nino grins, offering a closed fist to Adrien.</p><p> </p><p>Adrien taps his fist back on Nino’s, laughing.</p><p> </p><p>“And here I thought you two…” Alya laughs, shaking her head, “I thought there was a possibility that you two started dating in secret and were running off together to make out or something. Turns out you’re just chasing Akumas together.”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette sputtered, red in the face.  Looking at her partner, she notices Adrien’s turned the same shade of red as well.</p><p> </p><p>“Wait, you just thought she was in an abusive relationship!” Adrien yelped. “But then you say you thought we were running off to m-make out… I’d never hurt Marinette!”</p><p> </p><p>Alya huffed, “I didn’t know what to think, Sunshine! Of course, I know you’re not an abusive fuck. That title goes to your dad,” she ignores Adrien’s indignant squawk, “I just thought that she might have gotten involved with someone unsavory. I wasn’t implying anything bad about you, I promise.” She made an X on her chest over where her heart was. “Cross my heart.”</p><p> </p><p>“Well… okay…” Adrien said.</p><p> </p><p>“Now that that’s over,” Alya says, wiping her cheeks again, “You two have gotta tell me… you’re not dating? Like, at all?”</p><p> </p><p>“Alya!” Marinette yelled.</p><p> </p><p>“No comment!” Adrien yelled along with her, cheeks red.</p><p> </p><p>“Babe,” Nino laughed, shaking his head.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/reflekdoll">reflekdoll</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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